In case you missed it, a new site launched the other day, the Webcomic Alliance, it’s goal is to provide a place for Webcomic creators to find information on everything related to webcomics. This seems like a broad goal, but I think maybe they might actually have a shot at it.
Thus far, they have some great articles. Including this one about the Pro’s and Con’s of Digital drawing methods vs Traditional drawing methods. Heck, there was even a great tip about this SmudgeGuard from a poster, I might have to look into one of these.
I’d love to see this succeed, mostly for selfish reasons. I hope it creates a sense of community, a place to go to talk to fellow comic creators. I have been missing that recently, to the point where I haven’t been doing much art (At least cartoons, I have been creating Munny’s). There needs to be a place that welcomes everyone, where people share tips and ideas. Where every skill level is in exhibit among it’s members, novice straight on up to expert. I have yet to find such a place, but I have high hopes for the Webcomic Alliance.
Now naturally it can’t be all flowery and fun, here comes my gripe with the site.
The double right side bar with the founders ads for their comics are too large. Why do I say this?
Do I think the founders don’t deserve ad space?
Do I think they shouldn’t see their traffic grow from this?
Am I a commie, do I not want them to make any money??
Nope, it’s very simple. Go to any article that has nested comments, watch what happens as more replies are added to an original comment. Like here for instance, see how the nested space gets VERY narrow, if someone replies to that comment it might be one word per line. Which by the way does not make for a great reading experience. If the reading experience is bad, fewer and fewer people will go there, and then the discussion dries up and after that it becomes yet another site filled with decent articles but no overall sense of community.
Have you noticed the value I place on creating a sense of community? Maybe later I’ll talk about why I think it’s important. Not necessarily how to create it, but why I think it’s important.
That is all for now, go on over and check out the Webcomic Alliance.
Thanks for the write up Keith!
Excellent point about the side bars. When we planned the site, we didn’t anticipate the level of participation and the great response that we’ve gotten. That being said – we’re already working on redoing the sidebars to make the nested replies a little more readable.
Thanks again!
Ken
You did a great on the site, by the way. I seem to have forgotten to mention that in the write up…